What The World Can Learn from Africa’s Covid-19 Response Where America has floundered, many African countries have succeeded Tiffany Onyejiaka Medium

The United States has had a less than successful handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. From the government response to individual protests, the American response has abounded with politics and failures that have led to unfortunately high fatalities.

For public health leaders, understanding different communication styles and preferences — and how people respond to them — is key to reducing the spread of the coronavirus.

Humans often don't behave logically. Their decisions don't always follow the evidence.

Those are among the ideas that Gaurav Suri considers in his work studying decision-making and motivation. He's an experimental psychologist and a computational neuroscientist at San Francisco State University.

Not surprisingly, choosing the right words matters a lot when it comes to public policy.

Something as basic as how public health officials talk about wearing a mask — for example, as "protection" instead of a "mandate," could make a difference, Suri says.

Here are excerpts from Suri's interview with All Things Considered.